Asylum archive, a visual representation of asylum in Ireland
Asylum archive is directly concerned with the reality and trauma of life as an asylum seeker. Asylum archive is based on my personal experience of being an asylum seeker and living in direct provision hostels. Asylum archive uses contemporary art language in the form of video interviews, photography, found objects, and text.
Asylum archive aims to collaborate with asylum seekers, artists, cultural workers, sociologists, human rights workers, social activists, theorists, immigration lawyers, in the process of creating a platform that deals with questions like exile and asylum, displacement, war traumas, transnational migration, economic migration, immigration policy.
Asylum archive has a tendency to reveal different issues including institutional abuse, poverty, social exclusion, racism, mental health issues, etc.
Asylum archive is researching the possibility of creating a site-specific space within one of the closed direct provision hostels. The idea is that the archive will be available for a permanent rather than a temporary period of time. The archive will have a vital visual informative and educational perspective. This is to help to establish better relations and understanding around asylum issues.
The similarity of the historic suffering of the women in the Magdalene laundries echoes the incarceration and exclusion that asylum seekers experience in Ireland today.
MA Art Research in Collaboration 